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Monday, February 18, 2013

Hey, there's a "Serious Eats" blogger going vegan for 32 days this year. This year he is also bringing along some others, including his wife and some co-workers, to try the vegan diet and/or lifestyle for either 1 month or 1 week, etc. This is so cool! I keep seeing more and more examples of how the vegan snowball is picking up and gaining momentum, growing bigger and bigger day by day!

I found out this from one of the discussions in the Goodreads group Vegan Cooking and Cookbooks, which, by the way, is a wonderful, supportive, non-judgmental site if you enjoy reading and connecting with new vegan friends online.

Back to this "Serious Eats" blogger, J. Kenji López-Alt and his vegan challenge.. He has listed all of his Vegan Recipes 2012, including some yummy-looking appetizers for Super Bowl half time!

#1 Keep an Open Mind,
#2 Diversity Through Restriction (YES! This is so true! A vegan diet can encourage you to be more adventurous with your cooking and dining than you were before.)

#6 Don't be Embarrassed
#8 So you messed up. Don't sweat it. (Although I would say ... "So you consumed something not-vegan. Don't sweat it." Because I don't necessarily consider it a "mess-up" if you eat something non-vegan; depending on the situation, sometimes it's the most prudent choice; i.e., better than eating nothing. Sometimes eating nothing or "walking out" is a better choice than eating something non-vegan, but sometimes not.)

and

#10 Don't judge others. This is one of the toughest ones to do; non-veg people often judge vegans for being vegan or too picky or not vegan enough, and vegans are often judge non-vegans for not being vegan, or others vegans for being "not vegan enough." You can't win/!!! It's way too easy to get caught in this judgmental cross-fire. I like what he wrote in #10 ... "So you disagree ... So what? You're not perfect either ... you have to realize that not everybody ... has the same value system as yours." One thing I DON'T like about #10 is that he calls a veganism a "lifestyle choice." To me, that makes veganism sound like poly-amory or choosing to be a double-income no kids, or living the rock-and-roll lifestyle ... you know, something you do for personal enjoyment or because this is the way you choose to live. But for me, veganism is about helping the billions of animals who are suffering and dying each year for food products, right here in the USA. It's not a lifestyle choice. I'm not sure what to call it, honestly! But "lifestyle choice" certainly seems to be the wrong thing. Also come to think of it ... "being vegan" doesn't strongly affect my "lifestyle." It just occurred to me that I have the exact same "lifestyle" as my omni (meat-eater) sweetheart. We live under the same roof, we sleep in the same bed, we get our clothes from the same closet, we walk to the same train station every day and work an 8 to 5 job, we come home the same way, eat at the same restaurants, have the same friends; each of us does our laundry at the same washing machines, and we have our taxes prepared with the same tax preparer (we have very similar incomes), etc etc. Gosh darn it, we have the same lifestyle!!! Yet he's omni, and I'm vegan.* So ... right there, it shows how silly it is to call veganism a "lifestyle."* vegan-ish, if you want to be nit-picky! :)But then again, I guess I do understand why the Serious Eats blogger uses the word "lifestyle" when saying he's following a 100% vegan lifestyle. This would mean that he is not consuming or wearing any animal products, or items tested on animals, whether as clothing, shoes, cosmetic products, vitamins, supplements, food, etc. So in that way, it is important to distinguish "vegan lifestyle" from simply "vegan diet." Hmmm. I believe what I especially don't like is the addition of the word "choice." Vegan lifestyle choice. Hmm. I'm swishing it around in my mouth to see how it feels again. Nope. I don't like that. Maybe we can instead call it "vegan values." That sounds more intrinsic to the person. That feels more appropriate, to me.What do you think?

OK! Enough nit-picking on word choice / diction! The point of all this is ... I am super-excited about this omni Foodie guy doing the Serious Eats blog (vegan version) and bringing his wife and some of his co-workers along for the wild vegan ride!I hope other folks will follow his example and go vegan for a week or a month. Speaking of which, for my local peeps, Oakland Veg Week is coming up April 22 - April 28, 2013. If you're curious about trying more vegan foods, go to OaklandVeg.com to take the pledge. When you sign up, you will get special vegan recipes and other encouraging words sent to your e-mail box every day during Oakland Veg Week. Then, if you decide to stay signed on, throughout the year you will receive a new vegan recipe on a weekly basis. Just today I received a recipe for whole-grain pasta with peas, topped with butternut squash curry sauce and quinoa falafel balls! Holy macaroni. It looks awesome. Happy veggie eats, everyone!